Israel Active

The Southern District Committee for Planning and Building has approved the final leg of the future Eilat railway. The rail link will connect the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and provide a swifter passage of goods to both Europe and Asia, strengthening international relations, improving tourism to Eilat and significantly reducing air pollution levels.

London’s Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat recently published two articles that presented a different view of Israel. The articles by Dr. Amal al-Hazzani, an assistant professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, attracted a flood of hate mail, however.

While training to be a pilot, Lt. T was told he had cancer - but that didn’t stop him. He beat the disease and chose to rejoin the IAF’s Flight Academy. Now he has graduated the course, despite spending long stretches of it in the hospital.

Israel’s Water Authority has officially declared the national water crisis to be over. Heavy winters rains and snow this year, combined with increased desalination efforts and conservatory behavior on the part of the public, has brought the Sea of Galilee to within two meters (six feet) of its capacity.

When the shelter at Jerusalem’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was flooded during a downpour this winter, many people came to the rescue and fostered dogs like Leo. 10 days later, Leo ran away and made a 15km trek back to the shelter – a little thinner, but happy.

Non-Jewish New Orleans University International Relations student Chloe’ Simone Valdary was so incensed by her research into the Arab-Israeli conflict that she created an organization on Campus, “Allies of Israel” to fight Jew-hatred.

The rise in the level of the Kinneret so far this winter is the highest since records began – 47 years ago. Even before the current week’s storms, the water level was just two meters below the upper red line (when the Deganya dam has to be opened).

The Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL) reported that a new record has been set this Tu Bishvat, as over a million new saplings will have been planted this past week in forests and parks nationwide.

A new fashion store opened last year by the Women's Courtyard - a multicultural organization that provides support and assistance for young-adult women in distress and at-risk. It offers great clothes while helping at-risk young women who reside in the cities of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Bat Yam, find a place in the workforce.

“Seeing is believing” is the philosophy behind a Foreign Ministry proposal to bring 3,000 North American non- Jewish campus influentials to Israel to show them the country and combat what Ministry director-general for Public Diplomacy Gideon Meir called the “industry of lies” against the country.